THE MAGIC’S FIRST
road game of the young season was one to forget — a 108-82 loss to Stan Van Gundy’s Pistons.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Orlando Magic expect veterans Bismack Biyombo, Serge Ibaka, Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin to stabilize the team when opponents make runs. But on Friday night, Biyombo, Ibaka, Green, Augustin and Mario Hezonja contributed to the team’s problems.
They were on the court for the beginning of a gruesome stretch. The Detroit Pistons started the second quarter with four backups — Aron Baynes, Jon Leuer, Stanley Johnson and Beno Udrih — and starter Marcus Morris. The Pistons still reeled off a 10-2 run. It set the tone. Hampered by awful shooting, too much one-on-one play on offense and sluggish defense, the uninspired Magic lost 108-82 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
“They punked us,” Green said. “They put us on our heels. They attacked us. And we didn’t have an answer.”
The Pistons sank 51 percent of their shots. The Magic made 35 percent of theirs.
Orlando’s offense looked aimless most of the game, anchored by only one guiding principle:
to speed upcourt whenever possible and look for buckets in transition. That’s a good strategy if the Magic defense generates stops. The problem was, the Pistons opened the second quarter by making nine of their first 12 attempts.
Frank Vogel called a timeout after the 10-2 run and subbed out Green for Aaron Gordon, but Stan Van Gundy inserted starters Andre Drummond and Ish Smith back into the game. Detroit then scored 10 consecutive points to open a 44-24 lead.
“That group played poorly, and we didn’t respond,” Vogel said. “I thought early in the game we were trying too much to get us going ourselves rather than trusting the pass. But there was really a number of breakdowns.”
The miscues extended to the Magic defense, which didn’t contain the ball and lacked sharpness with its pick-and-roll coverages.
“We’ve just got to tighten up on defense,” point guard Elfrid Payton said, his head bowed while he answered questions in the Magic’s quiet postgame locker room. “It’s way too easy right now. I know it’s only two games, but we’ve got to be much better than that on the defensive end. We can’t afford that.”
The Magic’s offensive struggles intensified their defensive problems. With every missed shot early in the second quarter — including an errant 21-foot jumper by Hezonja, an offtarget 16-foot jumper by Ibaka and a missed 20-foot jumper by Augustin — the Pistons raced upcourt and punished the Magic in transition.
Smith, a former Magic backup point guard, finished with 16 points, eight assists and two turnovers.
In early 2013, the Magic traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks in a multi-player deal to acquire Tobias Harris.
Three years later, Orlando traded Harris to Detroit.
Harris looked like the best player on the court at times Friday. He tallied 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting and grabbed four rebounds.
“The second quarter came around, and we really picked our energy up,” Harris said.
The Magic have lost seven consecutive games to the Pistons, but Friday night revolved less around Van Gundy’s offense and Drummond’s 12 points and game-high 20 rebounds and more around Orlando’s ineptitude.
Vogel and his players have said it will take time to acclimate to all the newness that pervades their team: a brand-new coaching staff and nine new players, including Biyombo, Ibaka, Green and Augustin. They are correct. That still doesn’t explain the magnitude of Friday’s defeat.
The Magic acquired Ibaka in a draft-night trade to upgrade their defense, shot-blocking and toughness, but he has looked dreadful on that end of the floor so far.
Vogel faced a question about Ibaka after the final buzzer.
“Serge can do better,” Vogel said. “We challenged him, and he knows that. None of us played well defensively tonight — not a single guy on our team in terms of guarding our man and executing their defensive assignments.”
This was supposed to be the season the Magic (0-2) challenge teams like the Pistons (1-1) for an Eastern Conference playoff spot. Eighty games remain. A lot still can change. But not if the Magic keep playing like this.